Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[Nathaniel3W]

MF MLMarkland
Good questions and interesting ideas to consider.

The game is not on mobile. Minimum requirements include a GTX 750 Ti video card.

Screwing with the occlusion culling would require digging into the C++ engine code in UE3. Not saying that wouldn't be a good solution. It's just that I wouldn't know how to implement it, and I think it would be really difficult.

In Himeko Sutori I traced (that's what we call it in Unreal) from the focus point to the camera and if the trace hits a static mesh tagged for it, I switch the material to something translucent. I would tag big meshes, like houses, to switch materials. Smaller meshes, like lamposts, don't become translucent.

I didn't like that effect because it depended on collision. If you have a bunch of foliage that's purely decorative, the trace goes right through it. The way I have it now, if any actor at all--static mesh, foliage, whatever--has this material, it will automatically cut out if it's in the middle of the screen, and closer than the player. It's not even dependent on any post processing. The material's transparency mask cuts out in screen space. (That's probably related to why its shadows are screwed up, so I had to turn them off.)

Why did I do it this way? Because it's what I know how to do. I can make materials. There are probably better solutions. But if I'm the one who has to make it, this is the one that works the best that I knew how to implement.

 

[beardalaxy]

I am finally approaching the final stages of development. I aim to wrap it up by the end of the month and release it in late July.

The good thing is that my TODO list is shrinking rapidly, so I don't expect any delays or last-minute issues -- at this point, it's a bug-free, almost-finished game.

Bnnuy.
Good to hear you are making some great progress! Hopefully you can meet your deadlines I don't think I'll put a release date on my game until it's actually finished lol.

Ugh. I've been working on this for almost a week. But I think it's finally working now.
View attachment 37526
That's a screen-space effect on the meshes' material. It was a huge pain to implement. I had the principle figured out in a day or so. But then I had to test with windowed/full-screen, different aspect ratios, and different resolutions. I have no idea why, but on one iteration, it would be the right shape and position when starting the game, and then when I change resolution, it stays the right shape and position, but then when I change the resolution back, then it was messed up. Then I realized that with the hole staying one size (in screen space), then the hole is too big when you zoom the camera out, and it's too small when you zoom the camera in. So I had to redo the whole effect with a mask that scales with the zoom.

And just watch: Now I'll probably get a bunch of bug reports from my players saying it's not working on their machines.

I like this effect! I think it would be nice to have it be a bit larger, but I can see what you are going for. I like this a lot more than the typical dithered transparency you see nowadays.

Personally, I've just added an NPC that you can give money (it's called Giku (Japanese word for chrysanthemums) in my game, they're the last kind of flower that exists so they are highly sought after) and she'll give you hints on what your next objective for the main story should be. Since the game is open world this is a really nice way to gather your bearings.

One of the characters in your party can pick locks as her ability, so there are a lot of doors and chests that can be opened even without keys, including NPC's houses. There are plenty of buildings and doors in the game though that are completely empty, so I've been trying to come up with ways to show the player visually that a door can not be opened, without them needing to try clicking on a bunch of doors and just hoping one of them can be opened. The two current ideas are to put a Japanese seal on the door graphic, or to desaturate the door graphic so it stands out a little and shows you can't open it. I don't want it to be visually annoying, but I do want it to be distinct. So if you guys have any ideas, I'd love to hear what you are thinking!

 

[Nathaniel3W]

beardalaxy show us a screenshot of the game so far and maybe we can suggest an indicator for pickable locks.

 

[beardalaxy]

beardalaxy show us a screenshot of the game so far and maybe we can suggest an indicator for pickable locks.

Perhaps I worded it weird or it just got lost in my love (problem) of writing a lot of texts.
It isn't the lockpicking indicator I need, it's a way to visually show the player that they can't do ANYTHING with a door. No reason to pick it, no reason to enter it, because there isn't anything on the other side. It will help them just simply skip over it instead of clicking on every door and getting met with some message (like classic survival horror games saying a door is locked) or just nothing at all happening.
Doors and chests that have locks you can pick will show a message saying it is locked and that you can pick it, or use a key if you have one. So for those doors that don't even have that, since nothing is behind them, I need a way to show the player that they shouldn't be interacting with it at all.

Here is a screenshot showing what a couple door variations look like. These are the two most common designs used for buildings.

Something else I just thought of is maybe just removing the door handles lol. I don't know if that would be too subtle of a change, though. I'll have to test it.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Bnnuy.
Good to hear you are making some great progress! Hopefully you can meet your deadlines I don't think I'll put a release date on my game until it's actually finished lol.

Thanks. I tend to set strict deadlines so I don't have time to fuck around -- it's a nice way to stay focused than saying 'when it's done' every year until you run out of money, which happened to quite a few indie projects.

 

[Tweed]

beardalaxy show us a screenshot of the game so far and maybe we can suggest an indicator for pickable locks.

Perhaps I worded it weird or it just got lost in my love (problem) of writing a lot of texts.
It isn't the lockpicking indicator I need, it's a way to visually show the player that they can't do ANYTHING with a door. No reason to pick it, no reason to enter it, because there isn't anything on the other side. It will help them just simply skip over it instead of clicking on every door and getting met with some message (like classic survival horror games saying a door is locked) or just nothing at all happening.
Doors and chests that have locks you can pick will show a message saying it is locked and that you can pick it, or use a key if you have one. So for those doors that don't even have that, since nothing is behind them, I need a way to show the player that they shouldn't be interacting with it at all.

Here is a screenshot showing what a couple door variations look like. These are the two most common designs used for buildings.

Something else I just thought of is maybe just removing the door handles lol. I don't know if that would be too subtle of a change, though. I'll have to test it.

Make all the useless doors look the same and the player will catch on quick.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

beardalaxy show us a screenshot of the game so far and maybe we can suggest an indicator for pickable locks.

Perhaps I worded it weird or it just got lost in my love (problem) of writing a lot of texts.
It isn't the lockpicking indicator I need, it's a way to visually show the player that they can't do ANYTHING with a door. No reason to pick it, no reason to enter it, because there isn't anything on the other side. It will help them just simply skip over it instead of clicking on every door and getting met with some message (like classic survival horror games saying a door is locked) or just nothing at all happening.
Doors and chests that have locks you can pick will show a message saying it is locked and that you can pick it, or use a key if you have one. So for those doors that don't even have that, since nothing is behind them, I need a way to show the player that they shouldn't be interacting with it at all.

Here is a screenshot showing what a couple door variations look like. These are the two most common designs used for buildings.

Something else I just thought of is maybe just removing the door handles lol. I don't know if that would be too subtle of a change, though. I'll have to test it.

Make all the useless doors look the same and the player will catch on quick.

Glad you didn't tempt him to make one of these useless doors actually usable and hide a plot-critical item behind it.

 

[Tweed]

In Lands of Lore the City of Yvel has two doors among the multitude of locked ones that can be smashed open.

You want to design something that lets you off the hook, but doesn't stop the player from attempting to try and open every useless door in the game, that's on them.

 

[NoMoneyNoFameNoDame]

Despite the broken AO that suddenly showed up (thanks Unity!),
I've changed the graphics to be more detailed in Redaxium 2.

https://i.imgur.com/lMYIGHS.png

https://i.imgur.com/Wm7F7D0.png

https://i.imgur.com/9VMLmUY.png

The trick is adjusting the tile sizes of your textures and deciding if they look better bigger/smaller.
What you can achieve is less repetition or even more detail.

 

[beardalaxy]

Despite the broken AO that suddenly showed up (thanks Unity!),
I've changed the graphics to be more detailed in Redaxium 2.

https://i.imgur.com/lMYIGHS.png

https://i.imgur.com/Wm7F7D0.png

https://i.imgur.com/9VMLmUY.png

The trick is adjusting the tile sizes of your textures and deciding if they look better bigger/smaller.
What you can achieve is less repetition or even more detail.

This game looks very esoteric. I don't know if I'd be interested in playing it myself, but I would be interested in watching someone explore it. Does that make sense? I get the same feeling from this that I get from something like Active Worlds. I don't know exactly what your goal is with the game, but I think it would benefit it greatly to put some really strange stuff in here for people to find. It would work with the art style a lot. Seeing things like an Anxiety stat really cement this kind of feeling for me too, as these types of worlds have an unsettling vibe to them.

I made a side quest for a jester today that involves warping to another location. You have to meet a level requirement for the quest to even show up, so it'll actually be pretty hidden. I need to add other warps as well, that you can use once the quest is complete. It might seem like this is a weird, random feature that I'm just now deciding to implement, but it has been planned for a long time now. This leaves 25 quests for me to complete! Definitely not going to be easy, but I'm chugging along.

You want to design something that lets you off the hook, but doesn't stop the player from attempting to try and open every useless door in the game, that's on them.

Yeah, there will still be messages that read that the door leads to nowhere, essentially, when they click on them. I'm just trying to make it as easy as possible for a player to recognize that it is not a door that will take them anywhere, but not make it too aesthetically jarring.

Make all the useless doors look the same and the player will catch on quick.

That's the idea. I don't want them all to look like the exact type of door because some areas have specific styles of doors, but changing them in a consistent way like adding something to them, or removing something, to make them have the same kind of design concept is what I'm looking to do.

 

[Zanthia]

That's the idea. I don't want them all to look like the exact type of door because some areas have specific styles of doors, but changing them in a consistent way like adding something to them, or removing something, to make them have the same kind of design concept is what I'm looking to do.

Colour would be easiest, but if you make the non-usable doors painted it's going to make them more attractive for investigating. But if you can swap it so painted doors are real and unpainted doors aren't, that would be pretty clear and still let you decorate with bars etc. If you really don't want paint (or if other maps have painted doors) then a really grey version would also be intuitive to not interact with. I notice too that they're a really different colour/tone to the fronts of the buildings they're in, so doors that precisely matched the building would look less interactable

Another option could be something like doormats in front of real doors. But that won't work for things like abandoned houses, if you have anything like that.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Demon Lord Reincarnation is complete, but the testing and additional balancing are still underway. Balancing was probably the most daunting and fun thing I've done in a while.

One more test playthrough and I can start working on the trailer.

 

[MLMarkland]

It should be noted that 99% of game pitches are rejected, 96% of games that reach prototype are cancelled, 80% of game productions fail, 50% of alphas are shelved or repurposed, 20% of betas are cancelled and 20% of gold masters do not ship with a marketing budget.

Vaporware is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Abu Antar]

It should be noted that 99% of game pitches are rejected, 96% of games that reach prototype are cancelled, 80% of game productions fail, 50% of alphas are shelved or repurposed, 20% of betas are cancelled and 20% of gold masters do not ship with a marketing budget.

Vaporware is in the eye of the beholder.

That what happened to you?

 

[MLMarkland]

It should be noted that 99% of game pitches are rejected, 96% of games that reach prototype are cancelled, 80% of game productions fail, 50% of alphas are shelved or repurposed, 20% of betas are cancelled and 20% of gold masters do not ship with a marketing budget.

Vaporware is in the eye of the beholder.

That what happened to you?

I’m the guy who cancels games, not the guy who cares if they get released. Producer-Founder-Executive-Etc. Half the time I’m getting pitched, not pitching. My hit rate on pitches is quite high. My willingness to terminate any arbitrary thing when it is clear it will not be fun is quite high as well.

I was hired while working in politics under the assumption I would not be particularly needful about particular productions or elements.

I’ve only been on the design side / game director for 2 projects: Purgatorio and Apocalypse Now — both of which were abandoned or cancelled by myself, in dual capacity as a partner/founder, due to exigent IP impairment occurring post prototype and pre-alpha.

My experience in overseeing game engines, game technology and experimental interactive projects is more hands on.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

My hit rate on pitches is quite high

Can't find your baseball stats anywhere.

 

[MLMarkland]

My hit rate on pitches is quite high

Can't find your baseball stats anywhere.

.775 OBA

 

[Tavernking]

My player can use all of the skills in the game, but the party members never use some (for example, bartering is always done by the player, speech is always done by the player, lore is always done by the player, etc.). So when a party member levels up and the player needs to allocate their skill points, I was thinking I should restrict the option for players to increase useless party member skills, so they're not wasting points and feeling bad about it later.

A con of this is that it feels like I'm handholding, and it looks jarring to see that only some skills can be improved when leveling up a party member. I'm not sure what's the best option here.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

My player can use all of the skills in the game, but the party members never use some (for example, bartering is always done by the player, speech is always done by the player, lore is always done by the player, etc.). So when a party member levels up and the player needs to allocate their skill points, I was thinking I should restrict the option for players to increase useless party member skills, so they're not wasting points and feeling bad about it later.

A con of this is that it feels like I'm handholding, and it looks jarring to see that only some skills can be improved when leveling up a party member. I'm not sure what's the best option here.

Why is the player the one that's doing all the work?

 

[Butter]

My player can use all of the skills in the game, but the party members never use some (for example, bartering is always done by the player, speech is always done by the player, lore is always done by the player, etc.). So when a party member levels up and the player needs to allocate their skill points, I was thinking I should restrict the option for players to increase useless party member skills, so they're not wasting points and feeling bad about it later.

A con of this is that it feels like I'm handholding, and it looks jarring to see that only some skills can be improved when leveling up a party member. I'm not sure what's the best option here.

Perhaps have companions level up automatically with no input from the player. They just get better at x,y,z and the player only worries about his own level up.

 

[Abu Antar]

My player can use all of the skills in the game, but the party members never use some (for example, bartering is always done by the player, speech is always done by the player, lore is always done by the player, etc.). So when a party member levels up and the player needs to allocate their skill points, I was thinking I should restrict the option for players to increase useless party member skills, so they're not wasting points and feeling bad about it later.

A con of this is that it feels like I'm handholding, and it looks jarring to see that only some skills can be improved when leveling up a party member. I'm not sure what's the best option here.

Don't have those stats/skills for party members then. It makes no sense. Let the player improve their combat skills/stats.

 

[Justinian]

submitted a prototype of my next game for pixel art gamejam (with 4 minutes to spare ). very barebones, but it's a decent start.

https://justinianiii.itch.io/enmas-daughters-demo

enemies will have randomly generated body parts, that give different stats. currently only tentacles and horns are available and they don't do anything (yet).
Primary weapon will be a puzzle box that reconfigures itself into a gun, that can then be upgraded further during run.
each daughter will also have her own abilities and melee weapon, + active spells (Hell Verses) will be selectable at the start of a run.
The first (and currently only) daughter of Enma, the king of the underworld, persephone, createas a nightmare cloud periodically. will provide buffs/debuffs as it is upgraded, although in the prototype it just hurts enemies.
more daughters will be added, based roughly on less prominent goddesses from various mythologies.

This has been slightly improved with reload mechanics & a better character selection screen. I've been lazy so no new content.
My focus next week will be on campaign structure + upgrade system since they are the biggest and least fun time sink.

Spoiler

looks so empty, look forward to filling it up. And just realized I forgot to add portrait section. Crap.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I wanted to keep quiet about this feature, but it's too fucking hilarious to not talk about it.

This was one of the first things I added to Reincarnation -- since dead characters are gone from your party forever, I thought it would be neat if they kept coming back as undead to haunt the player.

These battles are usually easy, but they can add a bit of tension if you lost someone powerful.

Can't wait till someone sparks a rare skill that has a chance of causing instant death, loses that character, then suffers a party wipe.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

zwanzig_zwoelf that sounds like a lot of fun for the developer. Just prepare yourself for the negative reviews that will come from the players who find this little feature of yours.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

zwanzig_zwoelf that sounds like a lot of fun for the developer. Just prepare yourself for the negative reviews that will come from the players who find this little feature of yours.

I'm not afraid of negative reviews.